Sinclair Community College will host World Religions and Spiritualties Week, starting on March 17 through March 21.
The event, which is sponsored by the Office of Campus Ministry and the Religious Studies department, is designed to educate and invite dialogue between students in order to seek a common understanding between religion, spiritual beliefs and traditions.
“It’s more than coexisting,” Dr. Barbara Battin, an interfaith campus minister in the Office of Campus Ministry said. “It’s really working for a greater understanding of one another’s traditions so that you can be respectful. Coexistence just means that ‘I get to do my thing and you get to do your thing.’ What we hope is that people will learn to respect not only their own tradition, but other religious and spiritual traditions.”
The event will start on Monday with Old Turtle Day, and will include the Old Turtle Award presentation.
Battin said the award is given to individuals on campus who have promoted interfaith dialogue. This year’s recipients include Communication Professor David Bodary and Dental Hygiene Professor Sheranita Hemphill.
“We just feel that it’s very, very important for people to have some sort of education and understanding, and then be able to learn how to dialogue — not debate, not argue, but dialogue,” Battin said. “Dialogue has to do with building bridges between people, among faith traditions, so that we can work together for the common good.”
The event will also include a reading from the book “Old Turtle,” a story about respecting other’s beliefs.
Old Turtle Day will also include a presentation by Mo Khani titled “Geography of World Religions,” another titled “Celtic Spirituality” by Katherine Englefield, as well as “The Language of the Spirit: Come Read the Works of Saints and Mystics,” presented by Amanda Hayden.
Old Turtle Day will also feature an informational table titled “Holiday Holy Day Table: Purim and St. Patrick’s Day.”
On Tuesday, Vicki Massman will present “Exploring Eastern Religions: Focus on Sikhism,” and Will Crawford, Sheranita Hemphill and Battin will present “Tent of Abraham/People of the Book.”
“In a world that is globally interactive, and in the United States where we have more and more people observing a variety of faith traditions and spiritual practices, it adds to the essential that we begin to learn about one another’s traditions and so begin to respect those traditions,” Battin said.
The Holi celebration will also begin on Tuesday.
“It’s a Hindu event that celebrates overcoming evil with good, and the arrival of spring,” she said. “It’s also called the festival of colors and they throw paint on each other. We’re going to do some face painting.”
On Wednesday, Battin will present “Labyrinth: A Spiral Path,” and in Building 7, Room 006B; attendees will have the opportunity to walk through a labyrinth as well as journal about the experience with the writing prompts provided.
“It’s an ancient prayer and meditation tool with the theme of journeying into the center where one encounters the holy, or the sacred or God, and then taking that calm, that peace, that wisdom, that insight, back into the world with you,” Battin said. “We will have a canvas labyrinth spread out … and people walk the labyrinth, there will be someone there all the times to help them understand it if they haven’t walked it before.
Thursday’s events include “Lectio Divina: Spiritual Reading” by Battin, a “Spring Equinox Celebration: Ostra; Shubun-no-hi” event, a reading of “Old Turtle and the Broken Truth” by Douglas Wood and an Art Prayer by Jane Steinhauser. Attendees will also have the ability to walk through the labyrinth again and “White Dove Circle” by Pat Zimmerman and Erika Lemons will also be presented.
“The White Dove Circle of Love and Light will be here,” Battin said. “They’re a recently established church, and they’re going to talk about their philosophy, their theology, and share that. We want to include a variety of spiritualties, not just mainlines.”
Friday will include various videos for attendees to watch, including “Harmony in Diversity” by the Dalai Lama and “Mystic Lands,” a six-part series featuring 20-minute-long videos.
“Every tradition has a sense of working [to] change the world so that it is a more peaceful place, a more just place, a more joyful place,” Battin said. “If we can each learn about one another’s traditions so that we can come together and share the best of our intent of the common good, then we have a really good foundation for building communities around the United States and around the world.”